Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cooling unit system composed of a cooling device and at least two shelving modules that can be aligned in a row and in identical fashion, have a base group, a rear wall group, and an upper group with respective casing parts and form a cooling chamber. The shelving modules have identical module frames with frame profiles, which support the base group, the rear wall group, and the upper group, and at least the rear wall group of each shelving module is equipped with components of the cooling device.
Discussion of Related Art
German Patent Reference DE 20 2010 008 333 U1 discloses a cooling unit in which it is also possible to place several of these cooling units next to one another. The cooling unit has a flat cooling element, which is embodied as particularly flat and which is placed in a rear wall group of the cooling unit and can also optionally be integrated into a base group or an upper assembly. The cooling unit also has a system composed of vertical adjusting rails that can be inserted into one another and horizontal adjusting rails attached to them at the top and bottom, protruding toward the front. The vertical adjusting rails are positioned between a rear wall and air-guiding walls situated close to the cooling chamber and are spaced apart by the same distance as these walls. The distance of the air-guiding walls from the rear wall is determined by the width of the heat exchanger or by fans, which produce an air flow along the heat exchanger. If a correspondingly high cooling power is required, then the heat exchanger is connected to a central refrigeration unit. The connection procedure must be performed by a specialized company. When there are a large number of such cooling units, this entails a corresponding installation expense.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,894 discloses a cooling unit system with a cooling device that has different components such as evaporators, condensers, compressors, and the like in order to provide the necessary cooling chambers required in a supermarket sector. The entire cooling unit system with the cooling device includes various shelves and cabinet units accommodating components of the cooling device. The entire refrigeration system entails a significant installation expense.
Another cooling unit system is disclosed in PCT Patent Reference WO 2012/025240 A2. In this known design, a plurality of modularly embodied cooling units are combined in a system with a plurality of cooling units. Each cooling unit has a cooling device specific to the cooling unit, with an evaporator, a condenser, and a compressor. A cooling device specific to the cooling unit can also be associated with at least two cooling units. The cooling units can be connected in parallel or in series via a secondary circuit to a central heat exchanger.
The condenser and a control unit are positioned in the upper region of the cooling unit, while the compressor is positioned in its lower region. In individual cases on site, circumstances frequently arise that require complex installation work and that impede the installation.
PCT Patent Reference WO 2005/075910 A1 proposes another cooling unit system with modular cooling units that have an overall length of 1250 mm, for example. The cooling unit modules each have their own cooling unit with evaporator(s), fan(s), expansion valve(s), and control(s). The cooling unit of a cooling unit module can be embodied as a so-called plug-in cooling unit or can be connected via corresponding pipework to a central refrigeration system. By embodying the cooling unit system inside the individual cooling unit modules, it is possible to achieve different temperatures or temperature groups or classes. This design is intended, for example, to eliminate the disadvantage of elongated heat exchangers and evaporators that have a length of greater than 3000 mm in cooling unit systems composed of a plurality of refrigeration unit modules, as is known in the design according to German Patent Reference DE 102 19 101 A1. Even shelving modules with such predetermined designs can cause problems during installation on site due to different circumstances that make it difficult to achieve an optimum adaptation to the conditions while also achieving an efficient energy use.